Over the past decade, rough sex behaviors have become increasingly prevalent and normalized among many young adults in the U.S. and internationally. The most striking change has been in relation to non-fatal strangulation, which is almost universally called “choking” by the people who engage in it as well as in mainstream media and in pornography. Today, there is a growing awareness about and alarming concern with strangulation during sex being used in consensual sexual practices, violent pornography, and dangerous adolescent “choking games” leading to similar health consequences and death.

In this evidence-based presentation, Dr. Debby Herbenick (a Professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health, an internationally recognized sexuality researcher, and author of the forthcoming “Yes Your Kid: What Parents Need to Know About Today’s Teens and Sex”) will share her team’s groundbreaking research on how choking/strangulation has rapidly increased in prevalence, both as part of consensual sex and in connection with college campus and community sexual assaults. dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.